


Mother's Darling

by notsowriterly



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-10-27
Updated: 2018-10-27
Packaged: 2019-08-08 06:07:43
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,541
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16423874
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notsowriterly/pseuds/notsowriterly





	1. How I Didn't Kill Myself

When Avi woke to a hospital, his first reaction was to fall off the bed, dragging the equipment with him but not caring, not caring about anything else but getting away. The monitor tipped over into the bed and he hit his hip on the way down but he didn’t care, couldn’t care, not while he was  _ here _ . 

“ _ Avi _ .” It was, perhaps, the only voice that could’ve stopped him. The woman was mousy haired, and she looked as tired as he ever knew her, but she was unmistakably, his mother. He’d never seen her look so frail, or so old. The nurses had already stormed the room, and their presence made Avi bristle, his entire body taught like a wild animal, ready to claw its way out of a cage. One of them was brave enough to take a step forward, and Avi scrambled back, the equipment dragging further, nearly falling over. 

This time his mother came closer. He held himself still, and she ghosted her hands over his face, his arms, stopping at his forearms. And then she hunched over and began to sob. 

Avi looked down, seeing his bandaged wrists, and thought vaguely,  _ Oh. _

Apparently he’d tried to kill himself. 

 

Avi didn’t exactly have the best opinion on hospitals. The only time he’d been before this was when he’d first met his mother. 

He only remembered flashes, now. The fear was prominent. Everything else was hazy. 

Father woke him up one day, and led him into the basement. 

It was a regular occurence. First aid and food was a thing to be earned, not given, and Father had made him earn it everyday by tossing him into the cage with a new demon. Avi had never liked overly perfect, overly pretty things, and this was always why. Demons weren’t the ugly things in the back of your closet. They were the perfect looking people with always the right thing to say. It was part of the reason that humans were so drawn to them. For Avi, however, perfection was always waiting in the cage, ready to tear him apart. 

The demon that day was a woman, or at least appeared to be so. Her eyes were dark as Avi’s but her hair was the opposite of his, pale blonde, spilling down her back like liquid metal. She started off sweet, like they always did. Avi had hesitated once in the face of this, and he’d had scars from the demon to prove it. He didn’t hesitate this time. 

The blood seeped into his shoes. His father looked inordinately pleased. “You will do.” Avi waited for the rest of the command.  _ You will do what?  _ But his father never continued it. He’d asked Avi to close his eyes, and when Avi woke up he was in the middle of somewhere he’d never known, without his father there with him. 

He hadn’t set a foot outside of his father’s home in twelve years. The outside was an impossible concept. This place, where people were telling him that he didn’t have a father, had only a mother, was terrifying. He remembered trying to fight his way out, but then a team of nurses and doctors and security guards had managed to strap him down onto a table. 

And then, a day later, there was his mother. Carla Brennan, she’d said. He hadn’t said anything. She spent two days by his bedside, talking to him, despite the fact that he couldn’t talk back. She’d gotten him out of restraints the third day, and out of the hospital in four. After two years, she’d gotten him to speak. 

Some things hadn’t changed. His mother had refused to move from the side of his bed for the past day. Avi was at once glad for his stepfather Albert. He was sure if it wasn’t for Albert, his mother would forget to eat. And if it wasn’t for his little sister Tally, he’s sure he would have gone completely insane. 

“I didn’t try to kill myself.” This was the third time he was having this conversation. Tally was in his lap with her headphones on, humming nonsensically in the way that only three years old could and drawing blobs on the back of a flyer. Avi’s mother was quiet, like she’d been for the past day. Her silence rung in his ears. 

The doctor raised an eyebrow. “These are razor marks.” 

Avi sighed. “Look. I met a guy, alright?” More accurately a demon, at a pub demons seemed to frequent and Avi went every Friday and Saturday to make use of the weapons stored in the back of his closet. “We’d gone to the back of the bar to make out--” Or rather, Avi’d lured him into the back alley of the bar to kill him-- “And the guy flipped out and used his knife on me.” Talons, not knives, but same thing. Kind of. 

“The bartender found you alone,” the doctor said. 

It was the bartender’s fault anyway. Stupid new kid. If it wasn’t for him, that demon would’ve been dead, and Avi wouldn’t be here. Why the fuck did he have to take a smoke break anyway? Avi wasn’t planning on a distraction, and definitely not one that could’ve gotten him killed. 

Avi rolled his eyes. “Yeah, because the other guy seemed super into my health and well-being. He was a psycho, he flipped out, he left.”

The doctor looked like he  _ still _ didn’t believe Avi, and Avi rubbed soothing circles on the tops of Tally’s arms to stop himself from punching the guy in the face. Tally frowned and knocked his hands away, and Avi gave himself a moment to grin down at her. Such a little brat. 

Albert spoke up from where he was sitting in the hospital chair, his moustache twitching uncomfortably and his voice gruff like the mere thought of emotions and communicating was freaking him out. “Do you want to file charges?”

The doctor cleared his throat. “There might not be any one to file charges against, Mr. Baker. We found evidence of alcohol and some other substances in Avi’s bloodstream. It might be that the crash from the drug or some kind of hallucination caused Avi to hurt himself.” Avi started to scowl before he registered the words. There was another substance in his veins? He’d only taken one drink, and that too from his usual bartender, one who never allowed roofies in anyone’s drink. Which meant… Did the demon’s claws have toxins?

“I didn’t take any drugs.” 

The doctor looked like he was as sick of Avi’s protestations as Avi was of him ignoring them. “Avi--”

Avi cut him off. “What was it? In my blood? What kind of drug?” 

The doctor consulted his chart. “Some kind of depressant. We’re still doing further testing.” Oh. A sedative. This was  _ that _ kind of demon. And here he’d thought he’d passed out from the massive blood loss. 

But still. Avi threw his hands up. “Did it occur to you that I might have been roofied? I had one drink, for god’s sake, I’m not crazy.” 

“Roofies can cause hallucinations--”

“For fuck’s sake.” Avi bit off another oath. “We’re not talking about this. There isn’t a debate about this. I didn’t try to kill myself.”

“Would you ever?” Carla finally spoke up. Avi looked at her. She pressed her hands to her eyes. “I can’t stop thinking what would’ve made you do it. What I did wrong.”

Avi really wanted to punch the doctor in the face now. Telling his mother lies and making her think anything bad about herself. “ _ Mom _ . Mom, look at me.” She finally did, and at the sight of the bandages, she looked like she was going to crumple all over again. “I love you. I love living with you, and taking Tally to school every Friday, and I even like Albert, no matter how much I pretend otherwise. Don’t spontaneously combust, dude,” Avi directed this to Albert, who looked like he was mortified and overwhelmed by the thought of Avi liking him in the slightest. “Even if anything happened to me, there is never anything you did wrong. Don’t ever think that.” 

She started crying again, and threw her arms around him like she did when he first woke up, pressing shaking fingers into his hair. Tally looked irritated at being jostled, and started gearing up for a tantrum, but Avi pulled away from his mother, pulling off Tally’s headphones and asking her about her drawings instead. 

“That’s a doggie.” Her tone said,  _ obviously _ . “He’s getting married to a Mrs. Doggie, and they’re going to have puppies, and that’s me, with a puppy.” She’d been on this puppy kick ever since the next door neighbors got a puppy last month. Avi saw them trying to potty train the thing. A puppy was out of the question. 

Still he wasn’t ready to go back to his mother’s tears or the condescending doctor or Albert’s melt down, so he asked about the names and what she would do with a puppy, and ignored the doctors increasingly irritating throat clearing, until finally he decided to start talking anyway. 

“I suggest you keep Avi overnight for observation.” 

Avi stiffened, his voice faltering. The idea of waking up to white walls again was terrifying. As it was, this one visit was going to haunt him for months. 

“How many days?” Carla asked, and Avi could feel his throat close. 

“ _ Mom _ .” 

She looked at him, and held his hand tight. He can’t squeeze back. He can’t imagine the idea of staying here, waking up to terror for  _ days _ . “I  _ can’t _ , Avi. I can’t take that chance and lose you.” 

“I can’t stay here.” 

His mother softened, and pressed a kiss to his hair. “I’ll stay with you, baby. Every single day you’re here.” 

And like when she said the same thing five years ago, he believed her.


	2. The Prostitutes, The Homosexuals, and Jesus

“I can’t believe this. I didn’t try to kill myself because of the town. I didn’t try to kill myself  _ period _ .” Avi stared at his mother from the rearview mirror. She stared steadily back at him. 

“Not everything is about you, Avi. That town was toxic, and Albert has been considering this job for a long time--”

“Bullshit.” 

“Avi Brennan, no swearing with your little sister in the car!” 

Avi sighed. “Sorry. But it’s true. You’ve been treating me with kid gloves ever since it happened. I haven’t done anything to deserve--”

“ _ Don’t _ . Don’t tell me that. Either you tried to hurt yourself or you placed yourself in a position to meet up with some kind of psycho, and either way, anything I do to you now is completely justified.” She sighed. “Anyway, you complaining does nothing. We’re in the car, we’re almost there, there’s nothing you can do about it.” 

Avi leaned his head back against the seat. Four hours in this tin can and he was ready to stop, drop, and roll his way to freedom. Especially since the destination wasn’t exactly all that appealing. “It’s my senior year. Senior year  _ summer _ . Are you planning on me having friends at all?” 

Carla scoffed. “I know what kind of friends you have.”

Avi shrugged, allowing the point. He was trying not to smirk, but he could see his mother’s narrow eyed stare in the rearview, which meant he was definitely failing. “To be fair, I haven’t slept with all of them.”

“Right, I forget you have female friends. Maybe it’s because I never catch them  _ in your bed _ .”

Avi looked at her innocently. “Would you rather you did?” 

“Not the point, Brennan.” 

“Sounded like it,  _ Baker _ .”

“I’m your mother, you can’t just call me by my last name--”

“We’re fifteen minutes out.” Albert interrupted, and Avi finally looked out the window. Fifteen minutes out, and they were just now approaching the house. Lovely. Avi already knew how shitty his life was going to be. Then again, when did it ever fail to disappoint?

And when they finally caught sight of the house, Avi wanted to laugh. It was a horror movie house. God, what irony. Maybe when he was lamenting his shitty existence for the next year and a half, he’d remember that he was a demon hunter living in a horror movie house, and find at least one thing to laugh about. 

“There’s a lake in the back.” Carla grinned widely, like that was a selling factor. “You and Albert could fish, it’d be so  _ cute _ \--”

“No. Mom,  _ no _ .” He didn’t even want to imagine himself in those sagging jeans and floppy cap, not to mention the bright orange vest might be eighty percent of the reason that he wasn’t ever stepping foot on a boat, and that would mean those nasty water demons were only ten percent, which was saying  _ a lot _ . 

Her face dropped. “Why not?” 

“We’re not cavemen, we don’t need to catch prey by ourselves. You want to eat fish, you can go to a supermarket. Do they even have those here?” 

Carla made an irritated noise, facing the front again as they rolled up the driveway. “Don’t be so dramatic, Avi, just because this isn’t the city doesn’t mean there aren’t plenty of people here.” 

Avi scoffed. “Oh, really? Where?” Because the farthest house he could see was a mile out, and judging by the look of it, any teenager caught dead living there wouldn’t be a teenager he was willing to know. Then again, in a few minutes, he was going to be one of them. 

“This is on the far side of town, I thought we could use some fresh air, fresh skies--”

The car screeched to a stop in the middle of her speech, and Avi nearly catapulted himself out of the backseat, and only half of that was because of the nauseating four hour trip. The other half of the reason was the salt. That was another thing that made this place so annoying. It was much easier to pour salt around his old apartment complex than it was this huge ass house. Avi sighed as he finally rounded the back of the house. If there was a feeling opposite to claustrophobic, this was it. With all this empty, air, this silence, he felt… lonely. 

As far as his mom knew, it was Avi’s inborn instinct to explore any place he was in, circling around it like a dog ready to nap. The salt was concealed in his pocket, a hole was cut out to make it drip with nice consistency, and no one but Avi was none the wiser. 

When he came back in, she smiled at him indulgently. “Good?”

He rolled his eyes. “Do I have a choice?”

But he started unloading the car obediently. He’d go around with other rings of salt later. For now, this would have to do. 

\---------

He should’ve known that it would get worse. 

“You can’t be serious.” 

“I don’t get why you’re making such a big deal out of this.”

“Let me get this straight. My bike doesn’t get here till Wednesday, I’m going in this shitty uniform, and I’m going late? You’re taking multiple shots at my social life, I don’t get why you’re trying to make everything even worse. Each time I think, oh, maybe this is it. But then it doesn’t stop. It keeps going lower.” 

Carla pursed her lips, unloading a utensil tray from yet another box. “Then maybe you’ll hit rock bottom, and know what it was like seeing you on that table.” 

There wasn’t really much Avi could say to that. Tally waddled up to him, nearly crashing straight into him. “Bubba!”

“Hey, little monster, ready for daycare?” 

Day care was definitely the wrong word. Tally was a charismatic kid, but she was definitely an overbearing one. It took her long enough to stop fighting with the other kids in her old daycare, and now she’d seem to grasp that this was a new daycare, and a new place of scoldings. So she had her regular reaction, and burst out crying. Again. 

“Oh, Jesus, Avi…” Carla put down the forks, but Avi shook his head. 

“No, it’s cool, I got it.” He scooped her up, swinging her around, and she gurgled, before laughing, high and clear. Tally was a sucker for “rides,” Avi swinging her around or pretending he’d drop her. Even in the face of day care. Avi only wished he had it that easy. But then again, he was raised with whips, not with rides. 

The lack of ease only became clearer when he rode in. For one, the school looked shiny, and brand new. But small. And the sea of uniforms made it hard for Avi to think of anything else but a prison. He wrinkled his nose. 

“Oh, look, you managed to make it on time!” The way Carla beamed made it clear she was about to do something absolutely embarrassing. Time to escape. He swung out of the car before she could reach over, giving her a tight smile. 

“Right. It’s a miracle. I’m going to go now.” 

She pouted. “I get it, I get it. The moment you get to school, I’m not your mom anymore, isn’t it?” Avi sighed. One day, he would resist the emotional guilt tripping. One day. Not to day. He swooped in to kiss her cheek, and she hummed, pleased. “That’s better. Have a good day, honey.” He shrugged and made to leave, but paused as she called out one last thing. “Promise me you’ll give this place a chance?” 

Avi looked back, raising an eyebrow. “Do I have a choice?”

That obviously was not the answer she wanted, but Avi didn’t wait to be guilt tripped again. His mom was great, but sometimes she needed to understand the cold, hard truth. Sometimes, life really sucked. 

\----

Fifteen minutes into the school didn’t disappoint. Avi would wonder if someone let the cat out of the bag that he was gay, because one lack of vest shouldn’t warrant this many stares. He nearly ran out of first period, just to escape that one girl with the mousy brown hair that he would think was a demon just for how much she looked like she wanted to  _ eat him.  _

The same mousy hair appeared by his elbow and he nearly jumped out of skin, but it was another girl, long face and eyes that seemed perpetually bored. She holds out a hand. 

“Well, the whole school’s not going to say it, so I might as well be shameless. Leah Anthony, town slut, nice to meet you.” 

He took her hand gingerly. Well, with an intro like that, who could refuse? Except… “Not interested, sorry.” 

She dropped her hand, eyes going blank. If he had to hazard a guess, he couldn’t tell whether she was hurt or surprised. Either way, “I’m gay.” At that her eyes lit up, and she let out an honest to god  _ cackle _ . 

“Oh my god, you can’t be serious. Do me a favor, and don’t tell anyone else, okay? Half the girls want to lead you into the janitor’s closet.” 

Avi rolled his eyes. “But none of the guys, I assume.” 

Surprisingly, she shook her head, tugging him down to her height. She’s surprisingly strong, but even she’s not enough to really move him. After a second’s pause, Avi gives in. “There’s a party next Saturday. Give Joey Kim a couple of shots. He’ll lead you into the closet himself.” She pulls back, and winks at him. “Don’t mention the day after, of course. He’s miserably closeted, figuratively. Half the guys here are.” 

He grins. Finally. “You know, you could be pretty useful.” 

She smirks at him, giving him a over the top sultry stares. “Thanks, I get that from the guys here all the time.” 

He laughs, hiking his bag higher on his shoulder. “Not that kind of useful.”

She hooks her elbow in his, leading him down the hall. “Ah, well, us ‘prostitutes and homosexuals’ have to stick together after all.” 

Avi raises an eyebrow. “Oh, yeah? Then where’s Jesus?”

Something in her smile seems to soften. “Oh, you’ll meet him soon.” 

And then she tugs him into the classroom, beginning the round of stares again. 

But somehow, with Leah giving him that knowing look, it doesn’t seem as discomfiting anymore.

\-----

He meets Jesus during fourth period. 

Well, literally. The guy’s name is Jesus, and he looks a bit like the part. Not to say that he’s rocking the whole hippie hair and soul patch, but there’s something about his eyes that seem unbearably kind. 

The world is so going to trample this kid.

Avi hides his grimace and tries not to check out his ass. 

Something about the way Leah looks at him seems like this isn’t just one of her guys, and Avi’s not about to alienate the one bearable person here. But maybe Avi’s the only one who can tell because everything else about her seems to scream  _ I hate you _ . 

“Hey, Leah, who’s the new guy?” Jesus cocks his head like a goddamned puppy and gives Avi the friendliest smile he’s ever seen. He can see why Leah’s so enamoured. He’s not the easiest to win over, but even still, this guy’s flavor of friendly makes something in him thaw instantly. 

Apparently Leah’s immune, because she makes an annoyed _ tch _ sound. “You’re in luck, Romero, he’s gay and just your type. Maybe now you can leave me alone.” Avi fully expects Jesus to continue the whole puppy thing, but Jesus seems used to it. 

Jesus clutches his heart. “Oh, I wish. You’ve ruined me for other women  _ and  _ men, Anthony, I’m screwed.” 

“Romero, more like Romeo?” Avi asks. Jesus turns on him with that warm smile again. 

“I might as well be, I suppose. You’re the new kid on the block, right? Jesus, Jesus Romero.” He holds out a hand, and Avi shakes it. 

“Right. When Leah said Jesus, I wasn’t expecting… well, Jesus, but good job, man, you  _ really  _ fit the part.” 

“I hope not, I have a feeling that the real Jesus wouldn’t be failing Math.” 

“You never know, he never needed Calculus, he just needed to be able to count till twelve for his disciples.”

Jesus looks amused. “You’ve never actually read the Bible, have you.” 

Avi shrugs. “I prefer a little less ‘heretofore’ and ‘thou’ in my books.” 

“Are you done bonding? Jake’s promised me I could sit on his lap for lunch, and I’m thinking of taking him up on his offer.” Leah’s annoyance is convincing, except for the fact that she can’t seem to meet either of his eyes. 

Finally, Jesus dims. “Right. I’ll see you too around, then?” 

Leah snorts. “Don’t count on it, Romero.” 

Despite that, as Jesus leaves, her eyes linger. Avi raises an eyebrow. Leah seemed fun, but she clearly had her own baggage. Avi missed his friends. They were all traumatized pieces of shit that barely liked each other, but they knew better than to bring their shit to the party. It was easy when you had no real friends to demon hunt. No one cared enough to ask, to potentially miss you if you were gone. But it was clear Leah hadn’t mastered the fine art of not caring. 

It spoke of dangerous things in Avi’s future. 

\-----

Lunch, however, was back to a bit of familiar. These kids seemed to understand how boring their tiny town could be, and they balanced that out by sex, drugs, but unfortunately, no rock and roll. Avi spent half the lunch absently fending off gossip and the flirting, and the other half spinning a quarter like a top on the table, watching it go around in dizzying circles. It wasn’t likely that many demons would be here. It was a small town, not enough prey for that many demons, but just enough population for there to be  _ some _ . 

It was easy, in the city, for demons to head to clubs and bars for an easy picking. Where would they go here? How would they hunt here? Avi knows demons like a second skin, he knows that it’s the only thing that his father gave him, this purpose to pick off as many as possible with his own life as collateral, and the know-how to succeed in it, but for a moment, he can’t figure it out. 

He looks around the table. These are supposedly the hottest people in the school, but none of them have that unholy level of perfection that demons do. He didn’t remember what his father’s voice sounded like, but he remembers the lesson:  _ Demons aren’t the ones that look out of place, Avi. They’re the ones that fit in. They are the perfect neighbor, the perfect boyfriend, the perfect mother. They are perfection.  _

No one here even looked close. Jake, Leah’s chosen chair of the day, looked like he was having trouble with triple word sentences. Avi spun the quarter again. Why would this town be bereft of demons? What was Avi missing? 

A girl put a hand on his arm, and Avi internally sighed, ready to brush it off, until she said, “You know, you look so good, I almost thought you were a transfer from St. Jude’s.”

St. Judes? The military school that Albert worked at? Avi put on his best smile, leaning forward. Leah shot him a weird look, but didn’t comment, turning back to reattach her face to Jake’s. “What is that supposed to mean? I see plenty of pretty people right here.” Avi winked, and she looked absolutely delighted at being the one to finally catch his interest. She smiled at him, blushing, and for a second she looked so young that Avi felt as though he had a conscious. It was terrifying, felt a little like nausea, and gave him another reason to his long list of reasons why he had to get the hell away from this town. 

“Well, yeah, but St. Jude’s are like models or something,” she said conspiratorially, and Leah finally tuned in, pulling away from Jake with a loud smacking sound. 

“Well yeah, but their personalities are all shit.” 

Avi frowned. That… didn’t sound like demons at all. “Really?” 

The girl beside him squirmed, clearly wishing that they could go back to flirting instead. “Well, not exactly shit. They just don’t… hang out with the rest of us, you know? Like, go to parties or anything. They’ll be all nice if you meet them but they’re not friends with anybody.” 

Demons not going to parties? Avi was appalled. What kind of town was this if even the demons were boring? 

Leah noticed the look on his face and laughed. “I know, it’s a waste of a lot of pretty faces. Thankfully we’ve got you for us, right?” She winked, and Avi grinned. 

“Always, babe.” Avi blew her a kiss, and the girl next to him made a sound like a squeaky toy being stepped on. Jake furrowed his eyebrows, ready to object, but Avi didn’t have time for that. 

He could feel the familiar buzz under his skin, the feeling of purpose. 

Time to check out St. Jude’s. 


End file.
